Aquitania The home of the Aquitani, tribal peoples of Gaul who were
fierce in war. Augustus turned Aquitani into a Roman province.

Aquitania
A Roman province formed in the reign of Augustus, extending from the Liger
(Loire) to the Pyrenees, and bounded on the north by the Mons Cevennus. See
Gallia. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York.
Harper and Brothers.

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Aquitania AQUITA´NIA
AQUITA´NIA, AQUITA´NI (Aκυϊτανία, Aκυιτανοί, Strab.). Caesar (Caes. Gal. 1.1)
makes Aquitania one of the three divisions of the country which he calls Gallia.
The Garumna (Garonne) divided the Aquitani from the Celtae or the Galli, as the
Romans called them. Aquitania extended from the Garumna to the Pyrenees: its
western boundary was the ocean. Its boundaries are not more accurately defined
by Caesar, who did not visit the country until B.C. 50. (B. G. 8.46.) In B.C. 56
he sent P. Crassus into Aquitania with a force to prevent the Aquitani assisting
the Galli (B. G. 3.11, 20, &c.); and he informs us incidentally that the towns
of Tolosa (Toulouse), Carcaso (Cercassone), and Narbo (Narbonne) were included
within the Roman Gallia Provincia, and thus enables us to fix the eastern
boundary of Aquitania at this time within certain limits. A large part of the
Aquitani submitted to Crassus. Finally all the cities of Aquitania gave Caesar
hostages. (B. G. 8.46.) Augustus, B.C. 27, made a new division of Gallia into
four parts (Strab. p. 177); but this division did not affect the eastern
boundary of the Aquitani, who were still divided as before from the Celtae (who
were included in Narbonensis) on the east by the heights on the Cevenna (Cévennes);
which range is stated by Strabo not quite correctly to extend from the Pyrenees
to near Lyon. But Augustus extended the boundaries of Aquitania north of the
Garumna, by adding to Aquitania fourteen tribes north of the Garonne. Under the
Lower Empire Aquitania was further subdivided. [GALLIA.]

The chief tribes included within the Aquitania of Augustus were these: Tarbelli,
Cocosates, Bigerriones, Sibuzates, Preciani, Convenae, Ausci, Garites, Garumni,
Datii, Sotiates, Osquidates Campestres, Sucasses, Tarusates, Vocates, Vasates,
Elusates, Atures, Bituriges Vivisci, Meduli; north of the Garumna, the
Petrocorii, Nitiobriges, Cadurci, Ruteni, Gabali, Vellavi, Arverni, Lemovices,
Santones, Pictones, Bituriges Cubi. The Aquitania of Augustus comprehended all
that country north of the Garonne which is bounded on the east by the Allier,
and on the north by the Loire, below the influx of the Allier, and a large part
of the Celtae, were thus included in the division of Aquitania. Strabo indeed
observes, that this new arrangement extended Aquitania in one part even to the
banks of the Rhone, for it took in the Helvii. The name Aquitania was retained
in the middle ages; and after the dismemberment of the empire of Charlemagne,
Aquitania formed one of the three grand divisions of France, the other two being
the France of that period in its proper restricted sense, and Bretagne; and a
king of Aquitaine, whose power or whose pretensions extended from the Loire to
the Pyrenees, was crowned at Poitiers. (Thierry, Lettres sur l'Histoire de
France, No. xi.) But the geographical extent of the term Aquitania was limited
by the invasions of the Basques or Vascones, who settled between the Pyrenees
and the Garonne, and gave their name Gascogne to a part of the SW. of France.
The name Aquitania became corrupted into Guienne, a division of France up to
1789, and the last trace of the ancient name of Aquitania.

The Aquitani had neither the same language, nor the same physical characters as
the Celtae. (Caes. Gal. 1.1; Strab. pp. 177, 189; Ammian. 15.11, who here merely
copies Caesar.) In both these respects, Strabo says, that they resembled the
Iberi, more than the Celtae. When P, Crassus invaded this country, the Aquitani
sent for and got assistance from their nearest neighbours in Spain, which, in
some degree, confirms the opinion of their being of Iberian stock. When they
opposed Crassus, they had for their king, or commander-in-chief, Adcantuannus,
who had about him a body of 600 devoted men, called Soldurii, who were bound to
one another not to survive if any ill luck befel their friends. The Aquitani
were skilled in countermining, for which operation they were qualified by
working the minerals of their country. The complete reduction of the Aquitani
was effected B.C. 28, by the proconsul M. Valerius Messalla, who had a triumph
for his success. (Sueton. Aug. 21; Appian. B.C. 4.38; Tibullus, 2.1. 33.) As.
the Aquitani had a marked nationality, it was Roman policy to confound them with
the Celtae, which was effected by the new division of Augustus. It has been
conjectured that the name Aquitani is derived from the numerous mineral springs
(aquae) which exist on the northern slope of the Pyrenees; which supposition
implies that Aq is a native name for “water.” Pliny (4.19), when he enumerates
the tribes of Aquitanica, speaks of a people called Aquitani, who gave their
name to the whole country. In another passage (4.17), he says, that Aquitanica
was first called Armorica; which assertion may perhaps be reckoned among the
blunders of this writer. [ARMORICA.]

The Aquitania of Caesar comprised the flat, dreary region south of the Garonne,
along the coast of the Atlantic, called Les Landes, and the numerous valleys on
the north face of the Pyrenees, which are drained by the Adour, and by some of
the branches of the Garonne. The best part of it contained the modern
departments of Basses and Hautes Pyrênêes. - Dictionary
of Greek and Roman Geography, William Smith, LLD, Ed.

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The Roman Empire During the First Century AD

Maps are essential for any serious study, they help students of Roman history understand the geographical locations and historical backgrounds of the places mentioned in historical sources.